Public brings protest, police concerns to council

Public brings protest, police concerns to council

Confederate monument in front of the courthouse.

Waay 31's will robinson-smith is live outside city hall with what residents had to say to their leaders tonight.

The comments were a mixture of disappointment and anger with how huntsville police and the city responded to last week's protest, along with a desire to make things better moving forward.

Xavier sanders, spoke at council meeting i'll be honest with you, officer, i'm scared of you.

I'm afraid of you.

In three-minute monologues, dozens of residents came forward to voice their feelings about protests where huntsville police said they used tear gas and rubber bullets to disburse the crowd of protesters.

Dustin timbrook, spoke at council meeting it's hard to reconcile images of courthouse snipers taking aim at my friends and neighbors with the brand of "a smart place."

Photographer david capo brought some images to the meeting and says he was hit by rubber bullets during the protest.

However, he says he will continue showing up to rallies until he sees departmental reform.

David capo, freelance photographer this is a problem and i'm pissed off about it enough that i'm gonna go do something.

So it has absolutely cauterized the fact that i'm going to be right in the same spot next time, every time.

And, if they don't like it, i guess i'm gonna start collecting rubber bullet wounds.

Many people during thursday's meeting asked to see a de-militarization of the police department and for better communication.

Angela curry, participated in protest we just want transparency and we want accountability, that's the responsibility of our city that they have to us.

To protect and serve.

Several spoke to a desire for the confederate monument to come down from the courthouse.

Before the vote on the monument, council president devyn keith argued that even though there are legal hurdles, that doesn't mean they should wait.

Devyn keith, huntsville city council president it take a cost to do something right.

So if we continue to push the can and say we're going to wait until it's legal, it will be there by the time i'm grey haired and no longer in this seat.

Huntsville police chief mark mcmurray and another officer took notes as they listened to what people said tonight.

Mother of two, jamie hanks, says much of what they'r asking for would benefit the whole community.

Jamie hanks, spoke at city council meeting the requests that we're making aren't expensive, they're not time consuming, and if we don't have any issues within law enforcement here, then it should be a win win for everybody.

The city council will meet again here for a special session in order to hear a report from huntsville police chief regarding the protests.

That's set for 5 o'clock next thursday.

Reporting live in huntsville, will robinson-smith, waay 31 news.